Steele's Got Them Right Where He Wants Them

Michael Steele, last seen arguing that nobody could have anticipated the swine flu, so it's OK for Republicans to have cut flu preparedness money out of the stimulus (because the duty of government is to not anticipate anything), now may get a leash put on him by the party officials who elected him, to their eternal regret:

A battle over control of the party's purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to "embarrass and neuter" the party's new leader.

Randy Pullen, the RNC's elected treasurer, former RNC General Counsel David Norcross and three other former top RNC officers have presented Mr. Steele with a resolution, calling for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman's power to dole out money.

The powers include new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.

If I were a member of the party, I'd want this, actually. Here in California, we saw a grassroots candidate, Hillary Crosby, win the race for Democratic Party Controller over just this issue, the ability to provide meaningful checks to the party over where money should be allocated. To see it in the national Republican Party, which has always been top-down, is striking, and a symbol of just how little control Steele has. His first 100 days have been atrocious, and the party appears to be slinking quietly away from him.